Hundreds of volunteers fanning out across San Francisco beaches pulled out an estimated 10 tons of paper, glass, bottle caps, nails and cigarette butts out of the sand Saturday during the 28th California Coastal Cleanup Day.

Organizers at Ocean Beach eyeballed the clusters of people scanning the sand for trash and said it was one of the biggest turnouts ever.

"It is kind of sad that we need to do it," said Eben Schwartz, Coastal Commission marine debris program manager. "But it's a wonderful example of what people can do when they put their mind to it."

The event was especially notable this year as the state prepares for what could be an onslaught of debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, expected to start washing ashore this winter.

Soccer balls to a pier

The Saturday cleanup included the collection of data on the kind and quantity of beach trash, information that will give researchers a baseline of information as tsunami debris hits California and the rest of the western coast of the United States and Canada.

An estimated 1.5 million tons of debris, including plastic, fiberglass, pieces of boats and household items, washed into the Pacific Ocean by the tsunami. Everything from soccer balls to a 100-ton pier have already washed ashore north of the California border.

"At the same time, we don't want to lose sight of the fact that the California coast is polluted by thousands of tons of debris every single year, no matter what natural disasters may or may not have occurred," Schwartz said.

On Saturday, volunteers found only the yearly accumulations of trash left behind by beachgoers and bonfire burners.

Beau Davidson, one of dozens of volunteers sponsored by Oracle, dug his gloved hands through a mound of sand dotted with the charcoaled remains of a fire pit.

He pulled out handfuls of blackened and rusted nails left behind from pallets tossed on fires, sharp pieces of glass, wire, concrete, bottle caps and more.

'I will never walk barefoot'

His wife, Rhonda Davidson, sat a few feet away, helping fill their plastic bucket with trash.

"It's very disheartening," she said. "I will never walk barefoot on this beach."

Nearby, Eleonara Druker scanned the sand for trash and recalled life in the former Soviet Union beach city of Odessa, where residents were required to do a similar cleanup on Lenin's birthday every year.

"We were kind of obligated," she said. "When we came to America, everyone volunteers. We're trying to be like that, volunteer and give back to society. America was so good to us."

Similar efforts took place across California on Saturday, where volunteers associated with schools, nonprofit organizations and private companies trudged across beaches and along rivers, roads, creeks and lakes at 850 sites in 55 counties to fill their bags and buckets with trash.

The event corresponded with an international coastal cleanup day in 110 countries, Schwartz said.

50% of debris recycled

In San Francisco, the debris was hauled away by Recology and then sorted, with 50 percent recycled. Even incidental sand will be pulled aside and turned into glass, organizers said.

The recycling effort didn't make 11-year-old Eva Macy feel much better about the bucketful of metal, glass and plastic she had found in the sand with a plastic sifter.

"When I look at this bucket, I don't know what to say," said Eva, who was with her Star of the Sea School group. "Why do people put this here? Don't they have any consideration for wildlife?"